


Set

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Family, Fluff, Foursome - F/F/F/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 19:24:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2080227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asher's going to be the odd one out in the family but in Kaidan and Seithr's eyes, that's not a bad thing.  Part of the same verse as <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1419609">Family Rituals</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1944642">Misplaced</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2080194">Cajole</a></p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: set</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set

Seithr's tired, so damn tired and sore because painkillers still don't tend to linger in her system to do much good even with all the enhancements, even with the sort of pain threshold she's built up; fighting everything she's fought, up to and including Reapers, you learn how to just grit your teeth and stamp it down to keep going. Although the sort of lingering pain is worth it as she holds Asher, rubbing her hand in slow circles on his back as she cradles him so his little face is tucked against her neck, his angry cries slowing to hiccupping stuttery sobs as exhaustion gets the better of him. Iris is old enough that she's reached a point where she sleeps like the dead although they've all caught her sneaking in just to check on Asher now that he and Seithr are home from the hospital. Probably the novelty of having a human baby and a little boy. Little Asher, named partly for Ash even though it's breaking the rules a little when they said their kids wouldn't have to carry the names of the dead but Liara had smiled when they'd all discussed the names and Miranda had looked up the meaning and it fitted.  
  
"Seithr?" Kaidan's voice from the doorway makes her turn and she smiles briefly as she continues pacing. He's been fed and changed already and she's hoping to get him back down but the beauty of having four adults is that they actually do stay on top of things in the house. After Liara had had Iris they'd all managed to make sure she got to sleep as much as she needed to, Miranda, Kaidan and herself trading off although Liara always got up when she cried and Seithr understands that now because she feels strangely alone in a way she can't describe. "Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?" Kaidan's voice is always deeper when he's tired and he's got more stubble than usual, the beginnings of a tentative beard, a little more grey streaking it and his temples and it looks good on him she's got to admit, even with the dark circles under his eyes.  
  
"He needed fed and he wouldn't go back down," she murmurs, kissing Asher's pudgy cheek, the noises now more like little mewls, like he wants to protest but doesn't have the energy.  
  
"Can I?" Kaidan starts and she nods, letting Kaidan take him – it's easier to hand over a human baby, not like when they were all terrified of doing something to Iris' crests – as she rubs at the small of her back and stretches. "You okay?"  
  
"Tired. Sore. Nothing bad but sometimes I wish Miranda's work hadn't been so perfect." She stops and feels horribly guilty. "Don't tell her I said that."  
  
"What happens in the nursery stays in the nursery," Kaidan jokes and she smiles, taking a seat in the rocking chair that Miranda picked out back when they found out Liara was pregnant with Iris. Miranda's got good taste because it's the most comfortable chair Seithr's ever sat in and it was and still is pretty normal to find one of them, usually Miranda, asleep in it holding Iris or more recently with Iris in her lap. "He's going to be the odd one out," Kaidan says quietly, rousing Seithr from the sleepy daze as she watches him sway on the spot with Asher, his signature awkward dad dancing move that she teases him about.  
  
"Yeah, feels right that we named him after Ash and the girly horde." She laughs – very quietly, she's tired and sore and Asher should be mostly asleep by now – and it still hurts, thinking about Virmire, about not being able to save them both but she's moved on. Somewhere Ash is up there with Thane and Mordin, with Anderson, with the crew of the first Normandy, probably even with Legion because it's going to be a damn good bar up there and she doesn't think they're watching over her now but they're watching over her kids.  
  
"He'll be...he'll be normal," Kaidan says after a long moment and he can't quite meet her eyes but she knows what he's talking about. "He can be his own man."  
  
"We've come a long way," Seithr begins, getting to her feet carefully so she can kiss Asher's head and cup Kaidan's cheek in one hand, "but I remember what it was like."  
  
Kaidan sets Asher down, kisses his forehead and smiles in that stupidly fond way where all the old pain and hurt disappears, where he looks young again even with the grey and the beard. "The odd one out in the whole set."  
  
"He's got you," she murmurs and Kaidan nods, a quiet chuckle escaping as they tiptoe out of the room, pausing to check in on Iris where Kaidan has to carefully tuck her back in, making sure her volus doll is in her arms and not halfway across the room. Miranda and Liara are right where Seithr left them, curled in the middle of the bed and Kaidan helps her to lie down, Miranda immediately rolling over to reach out for Seithr even fast asleep, Liara shifting so Kaidan can curl himself around her.  
  
She's still sore but the sight of her family makes it all worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to avoid naming any kids after dead characters because I have an issue with kids being named after others in real life but Asher isn't the same as Ashley and it also means happy or blessed and that's what the family want for their kids.


End file.
